Great Post thanks. I always think of what it must have been like in the many battle field countries in late 1945 and 1946. Everything was destroyed and so many died. The rebuild that happened after the war gives me great hope for humanity.

Norwichdad, still today the Russian call World War II the "Great Patriotic War" and hold great resentment towards the U.S. not getting involved sooner. They still feel we delayed our involved in hopes of German and Russian military might would become too weak to defend themselves against us. The landing on Okinawa was much much larger than D-Day but didn't suffer the loss.

The landing on Okinawa was much much larger than D-Day but didn't suffer the loss.

Push Hard, Press Forward

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I don't believe that is close to acccurate. The battle for Okinawa was the largest of the bamphibious battles in the Pacific theater and was a really brutal fight once they encountered the Japanese defenses and it was longer in duration than they expected it to be as the Japanese really changed who they defended, but it was not bigger either initially or subsequently than the Overlord landings at Normandy. The Okinawa landing was composed of simultaneous landings by 2 Army Divisions plus 2 Marine divisions (7th & 96th Infantry & 6th and 1st Marine Divisions) with the 2d Marine Division in Reserve - to form the 10th US Army commanded by LTG Simon B. Buckner . At culmination, Okinawa had about 270 k US ashore. By contrast Normandy landing had simultaneous landings of roughly 5 British and Canadian Infantry and Armor divisions and 4 US Divisions (1st, 29th, 4th and 90th Divisions coming ashore, all preceded by Airborne landings of the British 6th, and US 10st and 82d Airborne Dvisions. All told on D-Day the Allies landed about 160,000 soldiers and within 10 days the US and Brits had put ashore another 650,000 troops.